HOW WE REVIEW Restaurants are chosen for review at the sole discretion of the dining editor, based on input from our
food writers and critics around the state. Our reviewers visit a restaurant at least twice, always maintaining anonymity to
avoid preferential treatment. The reviewer brings up to three guests per visit and tastes everything that is ordered. NJM

reimburses the reviewer for all food and beverage expenses. After the final visit, the reviewer conducts a phone interview
with the chef, owner or other key members of the team. The review is then submitted to NJM and edited for clarity and
fairness. Stars are assigned by the editor in consultation with the reviewer. As a final step, an NJM staffer checks the
review for accuracy, al ways calling the restaurant to confirm all facts.

Lawyer Jason Miller had been kick- ing around restaurant ideas for years before he finally quit his dayjob to open Montclair Social Club, an am-bitious dining and entertainment venuehe calls an “urban suburban project.”“I’ve always loved Montclair,” saysMiller, who grew up in Livingston and nowlives in Short Hills. “It’s a dining and cul-tural hub with a wonderful, diverse demo-graphic.” The space—vacant for a decadeand previously home to Rascals ComedyClub—was gutted to create a bar and 115-seat restaurant featuring a vest-pocketstage for live music. The design is tastefuland modern, with Art Deco influences.

“Typically, when people hear about a so-cial club, they think about an old mobsterhangout from a bygone era,” says Miller.

“Here, we’ve democratized the concept.”When I visited, the bar buzzed withyoung professionals, while the diningroom was filled with groups of women,couples on dates and families with kidsin tow. A combo took the stage and playedsoulful covers of songs by John Legend,the Isley Brothers and Maxwell.

The kitchen is run by executive chef
and restaurant partner Michael Merida,
who trained at the CIA and worked at Park
Avenue Café and Le Bernardin in Manhattan before spending nine years overseas,
including stints at the Fat Duck west of
London and El Bulli in Spain. He finally
put down roots in Jersey, working at Green
Brook Country Club in Caldwell before
opening Montclair Social.

While Merida shows flashes of hishaute bona fides—a foie gras parfait ising a BYO—to the production of pastry,bread and cold appetizers. From behindthis bar comes the warm foccacia that,paired with soft herb butter, tests yourwillpower when you first sit down.

One of the most visually stunning
dishes to come from the kitchen is the
cauliflower steak. This collaboration
with sous chef Justin Franklin doesn’t
sound sexy, but with its well-orches-trated elements, from pomegranate
seeds to an herb emulsion to a “
couscous” made of yellow cauliflower, it’s an
orgy of color, flavor and texture.

Plush, pink duck breast with a
trompe l’oeil lasagna of thinly sliced
root vegetables was equally sensuous, even more so when a bite of duck
was dragged through its contrasting
complements: pistachio purée and
huckleberry glaze.

A seared scallop entrée with vanilla-infused turnips, by contrast, seemed a bitaustere. A salad of quinoa and spicy aru-gula with fresh figs, honeyed goat cheeseand roasted carrots would have beenheaven had the carrots been caramelizedrather than given a cursory roast.

For all his skill and talent, Freund
freely admits, “I’m not one who excels at
desserts at all.” He found someone who
does: Melissa Smith, a graduate of the
Institute of Culinary Arts who worked
extensively with Andrea Lekberg of the
Artist Baker in Morristown.

My advice about her vegan chocolate cake is to forget the first word and
just dive into one of the most intensely
sensuous chocolate layer cakes of all
time. If you prefer sunbeams, go with the
lemon curd, a refraction of textures and
flavors—meringue, mint, crisp ginger
snaps, bits of olive oil cake and lots of
snappy meringue, all arrayed in what I
hesitatingly called “a wonderful mess,” a
description Smith cheerfully endorsed.